While leveling Inscription with this guide, you will make Glyphs with Inks & Parchment. The ink comes from milling (another Inscription skill) through herbs (more info in below in this guide). You will only need Wrath of the Lich King if you intend on leveling beyond 375 in Inscription. This Inscription Leveling Guide will tell you step-by-step the best way of leveling Inscription with the least gold.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have enough gold to buy these materials especially when there’s easy to follow gold guides.
Why Inscription: Shoulder Enchants
The best reason for leveling Inscription to 400 with this guide is to make your shoulder enchant, which will save you tons of time or gold farming Sons of Hodir rep. You can apply these shoulder enchants only to your own gear:
- Master’s Inscription of the Axe
- Master’s Inscription of the Crag
- Master’s Inscription of the Pinnacle
- Master’s Inscription of the Storm
Milling
Milling gives you 2-3 Pigments per 5 herbs, so all my estimates for leveling in this guide are based on that figure. For reference, here are the herbs and associated Pigments:
- [Alabaster Pigment] level 1-10 herbs: Bloodthistle, Peacebloom, Silverleaf and Earthroot
- [Dusky Pigment] level 10-20 herbs: Briarthorn, Swiftthistle, Bruiseweed, Stranglekelp and Mageroyal
- [Golden Pigment] level 20-30 herbs: Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss, Kingsblood, and Liferoot
- [Emerald Pigment] level 30-40 herbs: Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar’s Whiskers, and Wintersbite
- [Violet Pigment] level 40-50 herbs: Firebloom, Purple Lotus, Arthas’ Tears, Sungrass, Blindweed, Ghost Mushroom, and Gromsblood
- [Silvery Pigment] level 50-60 herbs: Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom, and Icecap
- [Nether Pigment] level 60-70 herbs: Felweed, Ancient Lichen, Dreaming Glory, Mana Thistle, Netherbloom, Nightmare Vine, Ragveil, and Terocone
- [Azure Pigment] level 70-80 herbs: All Northrend Herbs. Goldclover, Tiger Lily, Adder’s Tongue, Fire Leaf, Icethorn and Lichbloom.
Leveling Inscription
While you use this guide leveling Inscription you should craft the widest variety of Glyphs possible and sell them for gold or share with your friends. So when this guide suggests a specific Glyph, there might be several Glyphs that require the same materials and have the same chance of leveling Inscription, craft whichever you or your friends need the most.
Estimated Herb List
The following numbers are rough estimates for leveling Inscription all the way to 450 with this guide.
- Inscription levels 1-75: 6-7 stacks of level 1-10 herbs ie) Silverleaf
- Inscription levels 75-100: 4-5 stacks of level 10-20 herbs ie) Bruiseweed
- Inscription levels 100-150: 12-15 stacks of level 20-30 herbs ie) Kingsblood
- Inscription levels 150-200: 16-19 stacks of level 30-40 herbs ie) Fadeleaf
- Inscription levels 200-250: 10-12 stacks of level 40-50 herbs ie) Sungrass
- Inscription levels 250-300: 9-11 stacks of level 50-60 herbs ie) Dreamfoil
- Inscription levels 300-350: 12-13 stacks of level 60-70 herbs ie) Felweed
- Inscription levels 350-435: 20-22 stacks of level 70-80 herbs ie) Goldclover
Apprentice Inscription (Leveling guide: 1-75)
For this part of the leveling guide, you’ll only need the recipes from the Inscription trainers in the big cities (Stormwind, Undercity, etc) From level 1-75 you are going to need 60 Alabaster Pigment, which can be milled from about 6-7 stacks of Silverleaf (or any other lvl 1-10 herb.)
Journeyman Inscription (Leveling guide: 75-150)
For the next step of this leveling guide, you’ll need 20 Midnight Ink (40 Dusky Pigment) to get to level 100 and 45 Lion’s Ink (90 Golden Pigment) to finish leveling to 150. You can mill these pigments from 4-5 stacks of Bruiseweed and 12-15 stacks of Kingsblood (see the pigment list above for alternative herbs)
Expert Inscription (Leveling guide: 150-200)
For this part of the leveling guide, you will need to make about 55 Jadefire Ink (110 Emerald Pigment), which will require milling through 15-17 stacks of level 30-40 herbs (ie Fadeleaf) While leveling from 155-200 make the best available Glyphs. Keep an eye out for extra Indigo Pigment from your milling to make Royal Ink and Arcane Tarots to save some time and gold.
Expert & Artisan Inscription (Leveling guide: 200-250)
To keep leveling to 250 with this guide, you’ll need 50 Celestial Ink. This will take 100 Violet Pigment which you should get by milling through 10-12 stacks of level 40-50 herbs (ie Sungrass). Sungrass isn’t cheap, and neither are any of the other herbs while leveling through the 200s.
Artisan Inscription (Leveling guide: 250-300)
This guide has you switch to Shimmering Ink until 300; you will need 45 which will take 90 Silvery Pigment milled from 9-11 stacks of level 50-60 herbs (ie Dreamfoil) to continue leveling to 300. This is another expensive step, even if there are enough herbs on the Auction House you’re going to get gouged gold.
Master Inscription (Leveling guide: 300-350)
Master Inscription Trainers (for leveling past 300):
- Michael Schwan <Master Inscription Trainer> Honor Hold
- Neferatti <Master Inscription Trainer> Thrallmar
Leveling to 350 with this guide will take 80 Nether Pigment which will require milling through 12-13 stacks level 60-70 herbs (ie Felweed) to make the 40 Ethereal Ink you need for levels 300 to 350. Felweed has is relatively cheap on most servers so you should be able to get the majority of your milling done with Felweed.
Grand Master Inscription (Leveling guide: 350-450)
Grand Master Inscription Trainers (for leveling past 350):
- Alliance: Tink Brightbolt <Grand Master Inscription Trainer> Valiance Keep, Borean Tundra
- Alliance: Mindri Dinkles <Grand Master Inscription Trainer> Valgarde, Howling Fjord
- Horde: Adelene Sunlance <Grand Master Inscription Trainer> Warsong Hold, Borean Tundra
- Horde: Booker Kells <Grand Master Inscription Trainer> Vengeance Landing, Howling Fjord
- Nuetral: Professor Pallin <Grand Master Inscription Trainer> Dalaran
For this leveling guide you will need 100 Ink of the Sea to reach level 435, which will require 200 Azure Pigment. You’ll need to mill through at least 20 stacks of Northrend herbs just to get to 435. Once you reach 435 it will be 3 Ink of the Sea, 3 Eternal Life and 6 Snowfall Ink (or 60 Ink of the Sea, ouch) per attempt. This comes down to having serious bling (gold), you’re going to burn through 1,000s of gold if you wnat to reach 450. Some of it you will get back, but not all of it.